December 30, 2012 8:04 pm

(Opening statement…) “I will first start by thanking the Seahawks, Coach Carroll and the organization. I wish them luck in the playoff run. Pete has got a good football team here.”

I don’t think many people gave us an opportunity. There weren’t too many people who thought this game was going to be close except us. I’m very, very proud of the professional approach that the guys took, not only all year but today as well. They understand it’s a difficult place to play. They also had an understanding of what we needed to do today to win the game. I’m disappointed we fell short but I thought it was a tremendous effort by our guys. They have nothing to be disappointed about.”

(Did you think your team would be able to get to Wilson as often as you did today…) “No, we didn’t. We knew we had to do different things, whether it was a four down (lineman) or different looks. We needed to fill the step-up lanes. We know Wilson is very talented. Fortunately, we did get him down. We were able to take advantage of some penalties early. That was obviously the difference in the first half. In the second half we gave up that drive. You can’t do that against them.

To have the ball in your hands with some timeouts and a 1:40 left, with a chance to tie or win it, we just didn’t get it done.”

(Did you see what you expected from the Seahawks today…) “We saw the same thing everybody else saw, they can do a lot of different things at different points of the game. They can throw it at will, they can run it at will. The quarterback can pull it down and run for a 20 or 30 yard touchdown. That’s what everybody else saw.

We just hung in there. We wanted to get them to kick field goals. We didn’t want to give up the big play. We gave up a couple too many big plays, but we have been making those big kinds of plays. They (Seattle) have an outstanding running back and offensive line and for the most part, we handled it. If there are positives, we didn’t give up any sacks today. They have plenty of sacks at this place.

I thought our offensive line did a good job. Sam checked the ball down when he needed to. They played well enough for us to win.

(On the future…) We have a lot of work to do. But if we sit back and get away from it a little bit and start to do our assessment, I think we’ll come away feeling like we made strides. We took advantage of the opportunity to play a lot of young players. Playing time for young players is essential for their improvement, so we expect to see them improve over the next couple of years. We’ve got some work to do, but we ended up with a healthy football team at the end of the year, which is a positive thing for us. All 53 practiced on Friday, and we really didn’t have any setbacks today. I think the guys are going to get away, which we’ll talk about tomorrow, get refreshed and recharged and come back with some optimism. I think those guys in that room can stand up and look deep in the eyes and say, ‘Hey, the Rams are back.’ That’s what we wanted to accomplish this year.

(On Stephen Jackson…) He’s a great team player and a great teammate. He loves to play the game, and he’s unselfish. It’s been a great experience for me to stand on the sideline and watch him carry the ball this year.

(On the not recovering the Lynch fumble…) We’ve had a few bounces like that this year that didn’t kind of go our way. We got the ball on the ground, great field position and couldn’t come up with it.

QB SAM BRADFORD

(On his thoughts on the season…) “Its kind of hard for me to give my thoughts on the season given the fact that we just played our last game. I think this team made a lot of strides, a lot of progress, winning four out of our last six which obviously is a very positive thing. Before today we had won three in a row on the road which is something this team hasn’t done in quite a while, so I am not sure that I could give you a great answer but I am excited for the off-season to build on what we did this year.”

(On what the Rams did right…) “I give a lot of credit to our defense for playing the way they did today. They (Seattle) had scored a lot of points over the last couple of weeks and they did a great job of shutting them down and keeping us in it. We were able to stay pretty balanced as far as run and pass which is something that we wanted to do. We knew that if we got a situation where we were going to have to throw the ball every play that that would play into their favor, so I think that was one of the things that we did to keep us in it.”

(On the touchdown pass to Pettis…) “That is exactly how we planned it for the guy to tip it right into his hands. No it’s really the look we wanted, I wish it would have gotten it there clean but for him being able to make that catch its great concentration, it wasn’t easy.”

(On the interception at the end of the game…) “Its fourth and ten, the ball has to go somewhere. I will have to look at it. I was probably a little late. He popped and I was going to give him a chance to go and make a play.”

(On how far this team has come in 12 months time…) “I think we have come a long way. We are a very young team so like I said to win four out of last six and three in a row on the road I don’t think that that is something that anyone really expected from us. It would have been nice to cap it off today and finish with a winning record but I think this team got better each week, we improved and we are going to try and build on that going into next year.”

(On Stephen Jackson reaching 1,000 yards rushing for the 8th consecutive year…) “You can’t say enough about Jack (Jackson). What he means to this football team. What he does on the field, in the locker room, off the field, he is so valuable to this team and this organization. I can’t thank him enough just for what he has done for me over the past three years and for him to become only the sixth guy in history to do that, it just tells you what type of player he is.”

(On how much he would like to have Stephen Jackson back after this season…) “I don’t even think I could tell you how much I would like to see him back here. I am going to beg him to stay. He told us after the game that he bleeds blue and gold and he wants to be here so hopefully we can make it work because like I said he is so valuable to this team and to this locker room. To have him coming back would mean a lot.”

(On Coach Jeff Fisher’s first year…) “Coach Fisher is awesome. I absolutely love playing for him. I am not sure that I have ever played for a coach like Coach Fisher. I look forward to many more years with him.”

(On if he had any doubts that he would be able to lead another 4th quarter comeback…) “No I think everyone in our huddle believed that we were going to go down and score. Things got going and we got it down to the 30. Everyone knew that we were going to go down and score. A little unfortunate that we weren’t able to tie the score and force overtime but I don’t think there was any doubt that we were going to go down and score.”

DE CHRIS LONG

(On looking toward 2013…) We’ve taken steps forward. I am pissed off that we lost the game. We’re all upset. We wanted to win that game as much as any game. I think guys in here treated that like the Super Bowl, which is a credit to the type of guys we have in this locker room. So that, in of as itself, is something to be proud of and gives you something to look forward to next year. I know we’ve got a good nucleus of guys.

(On the pressure the defense applied…) It was our whole D-line really just pushed the pocket and kept him in the pocket and put him in a spot where we took advantage of our opportunities. We got him down for the most part when we had the opportunities. He is tough to get down. It was a group of effort.

(On sacks…) Well, we got better in that regard. We want to win some more games. We take some pride in that, and we certainly we would have like to have won that game.

(On the team’s mindset entering the game…) We expected a dogfight. We expected it to be real tight. We expected to come down to the wire and win, and we just didn’t do it. But they’re a good football team and this is a tough place to play, so nobody is shocked in this locker room that it was a tight game. They’re a good football team, a playoff football team. They deserve it, they played well at home but we gave them a good fight.

(On how the team has progressed in 12 months…) I’m not playing the there’s-nothing-good-to-say-if-we-lose card. That’s not me. I’m really very proud of this team. Let’s be realistic. We are better than we were last year by a mile, so we’re going to continue to get better. I’m really proud of these guys. They treated it like it was the Super Bowl, and knew the season was over no matter what we did today. For that reason I’m really proud of these guys. A lot of teams would have just shut it down and started booking their tickets for the off-season. These guys fought. We’ll ride that momentum and get better and better. We feel good where we are but we need to get better. It is a tough, physical division, but I think we fit that mold pretty well. I think coach Fish brought the people in here that we need to win in this division. We’ll bring more of them in and get better.

(On Russell Wilson…) For one, he’s not a real big guy. The target’s pretty small, and I don’t mean to slight him in any way. He’s just not the biggest guy, and that makes it tough to get your target down and try to tackle. He’s great at extending plays. That’s kind of how they beat us today, extending a couple of plays. They can move him around in the pocket and they called a great game for him.

DE WILLIAM HAYES(On Russell Wilson…) Russell really showed me some things today for him being a rookie. He’s a good quarterback. It’s hard to prep for a guy like that who’s so mobile. There’s a new breed of quarterback coming in. They’ve got some true talent.

WR AUSTIN PETTIS

(On what he felt the difference was between the two teams…) “I think it just came down to them making the big play they had on the scoring drive, that was a big catch. The defense played well all game long. Once again they have been outstanding this entire year kind of saving the offense a little bit when we might not be putting up as many points as we would like. I think that was the big play and they made it when they had the chance”

(On the final drive reminding him of the San Fransisco game where they were able to force overtime…) “That was definitely the mentality of it. We came into this game confident like we do every game, we are very confident playing our division opponents as well. Unfortunately we weren’t able to come out with all of those plays here at their house but we kept in it and fought real hard throughout the whole game.”

(On the message from Coach Fisher at the end…) “Keep our heads up. Obviously its not the season we wanted but we had some young guys step up a lot throughout this entire year and I think the future looks really bright for the St. Louis Rams.”

WR DANNY AMENDOLA

(On what was the difference in the end…) “Yeah it was frustrating. It came down to the end and we got some good plays dialed up and we just didn’t execute. It’s frustrating. We are going to take some real positive things out of this season, roll into the off-season and get better for next year.”

(On the play of Sam Bradford…) “Sam did a great job. He is acknowledged as our leader, our frontman. We love to play hard for him, its frustrating that we couldn’t get the win today and just try to get better for next year.”

(On his assessment of the entire year…) “You like to take positives out of everything. Get away from the negatives and work on what you can work on and try to get better for next year. We have a good solid group and we are excited for where this team is headed, we’re ready to go for next year and we will head into this off-season with a great mentality.”

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About

Gregg Bell joined The News Tribune in July 2014. Bell had been the director of writing for the University of Washington's athletic department for four years. He was the senior national sports writer in Seattle for The Associated Press from 2005-10, covering the Seahawks in their first Super Bowl season and beyond. He's also been The Sacramento Bee's beat writer on the Oakland Athletics and Raiders. The native of Steubenville, Ohio, is a 1993 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and a 2000 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.

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Fisher is a classy guy. You think Harbarf would have started his press conference off thanking the team that just beat him?! Dont think for one minute Fisher didnt want to beat the tar out of Seattle, but he’s a real sportsman, not a dick like Harbarf.

This division is gonna get REAL interesting by next season. The Rams are gonna be very, very good next year. And the Niners will also, and so will the Hawks…AZ would be, if they could find a qb and catch a break from the injury bug. This is gonna be the NFC BEST real soon..

It was a good win… However our offensive line had better improve by ten fold going into next season. Protection and moving the pocket for visable throwing and running lanes. Our division rivals will figure it out by stepping up and continue to coral #3.

This was a hard win for our guys but they did it against a tough team. Way to go, Seahawks!

Fisher and the whole Rams team are going to be quality opponents for us for the foreseeable future and I’m looking forward to those games. As I’ve said before, I have a ton of respect for Fisher and he is building a top-notch team that will have longevity. Now that Bradford might actually get some consistency from the offensive coaching staff his play will improve.

Congratulations to our Seahawks for going 8-0 at home and making the playoffs!

Jeff Fisher is definitely a class act. He also coaches tough teams. That Rams team has grown, and Chris Long is finally looking legit. It’s amazing how much his play resembles that of his dad. It wasn’t enough that ‘hawks fans had to suffer through Howie’s career with the Raiders, now we have to deal with his son.

The point about Harbaugh is spot on. He has to be the biggest sore loser among coaches that I’ve ever seen. He didn’t shake Carroll’s hand after getting his a** handed to him, and during his presser he barely even acknowledged the effort that the Seahawks turned in.

If you want really boring, uninspired media video to watch, go to the 9’ers official site and flip through some of their pressers. I don’t know if the S.F. media ask unimaginative, or dumb questions, but Harbaugh really keeps the responses short and almost devoid of anything other than complete vagueness.

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